fetter
/ˈfet.ə/
"fetter" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fetter” is uncommon English (frequency #84,245 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,245
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A chain or similar object used to bind a person or animal, often by its legs.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fetter · fetter · English
fetter · rank #84,245 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,245
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH femtosecond
Nearest frequency peer: femtosecond (-3 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “fetter”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- FATT
FATT
15,764 corpus weight
- faubourg
faubourg
15,763 corpus weight
- femtosecond
femtosecond
15,759 corpus weight
- fetter
fetter
15,756 corpus weight
- Firmin
Firmin
15,750 corpus weight
- Flatt
Flatt
15,747 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fetter” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fetter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfet.ə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #84,245 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fetter” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fetter is uncommon English at frequency #84,245 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfet.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for fetter in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English feter, from Old English feter, Proto-West Germanic *fetur, from Proto-Germanic *feturaz (“fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). Related to foot. Cognates Cognate with Dutch veter (“cable, chain, ha… The correct English form is fetter, spelled F-E-T-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A chain or similar object used to bind a person or animal, often by its legs.
- 2Anything that restricts or restrains.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fetter appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound.
He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.
Etymology
From Middle English feter, from Old English feter, Proto-West Germanic *fetur, from Proto-Germanic *feturaz (“fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). Related to foot. Cognates Cognate with Dutch veter (“cable, chain, hawser; bond, fetter”), Faroese fjøtur (“fetter”), Icelandic fjötur (“fetter”), Swedish fjätter (“fetter, shackle”); also Irish feadh (“extent, length”), feá (“fathom”), Scottish Gaelic feadh (“extent, length; fathom”), Latgalian pāda (“foot”), Latvian pēda (“foot”), Lithuanian pėda (“foot”), Belarusian па́даць (pádacʹ, “to fall”), Bulgarian па́дам (pádam, “to grop, fall”), Czech padat (“to fall”), Polish padać (“to fall”), Russian па́дать (pádatʹ, “to fall”), Serbo-Croatian padati, падати (“to fall”), Slovene padati (“to fall”), Ukrainian па́дати (pádaty, “to fall”), Latin peior, pejor (“worse”), Ancient Greek πέδη (pédē, “fetter, shackle; anklet, bangle”), Armenian ետ (et, “back, backward”), հետ (het, “back; with”), Ossetian фестӕг (festæg), фистӕг (fistæg, “pedestrian”), Old Persian 𐎱𐎿𐎫𐎡 (p-s-t-i, “foot soldier, infantryman”), Sanskrit पद्यते (padyate, “to fall, topple; to perish”), Hittite 𒁉𒂊𒁕𒀭 (“place; floor, ground”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fetter", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).